TERRY COLUMN: Super scorers set for on-field showdown

There are many ways to score a goal in soccer.

The idea is simple: use anything other than your arms to direct the ball into the net.

That can be done from long distance or from inches away. You can score on a set play or in the motion of the game, in a crowd or on a breakaway. Some players specialize in using their head, others their left foot, many their right. Knees and chests and shins and heels and even backsides are all applicable, though less efficient.

Whitefish’s Haley Nicholson and Polson’s Tiara Duford have different styles on the field, but the results are the same.

Each is in the top three in Class A in scoring this season and they are the top two in points per game, each leading her team to an undefeated conference record ahead of Saturday’s clash under the lights at Memorial Field.

Nicholson has been here before. The Whitefish senior has led the state in points and goals scored each of the last two seasons. Unsurprisingly, she’s back near the top of the state again, having scored 19 goals and five assists, second in the state in per game and total scoring.

She scored 31 goals last season and 21 the year before that, on pace this year to eclipse not only her own personal records but state records for scoring too.

One of Nicholson’s biggest strengths, aside from her technical ability on the ball, is her lethal shot.

“She can strike the ball from distance, she can strike it with both feet,” Whitefish coach Roland Benedict said.

“She can get a shot off very quickly. She does not need a lot of time and space. She does not need a big wind up. She doesn’t need five steps. It does not take her long to get a very powerful, venomous shot on goal. From 25 yards and in, it doesn’t take long. You can put two or three players on her and she can get a shot off quick with just a little bit of daylight. That’s one of her biggest attributes.

“Any coach in the state that says that they wouldn’t want a player like Haley Nicholson is insane. A girl that can go and get you a goal without doing any (coaching), a girl that will put her team on her back and go get one, is very rare. Not a lot of teams have those players.”

On the other side of Flathead Lake, Duford has had a breakout senior season for the Pirates, scoring 17 goals with five assists in only seven games, leading the state in points and goals scored per game. Sixth in the state in goal scoring last season and 12th her sophomore season, Duford has grown into a dynamic player. Always with speed to burn, she’s added more technical prowess to her game over the last few years, making her dangerous in a potent Pirate attack alongside longtime teammate Ashlee Howell, herself with 23 points this season, and a handful of other dangerous options.

“She’s amazingly fast. Any time we want to set up a foot race we can send it up to Tiara and she can do the rest for us,” Polson coach Michael Hewston said.

“She’s crazy fast and over the last few years she’s really fine-tuned her shot. Anywhere inside the 18 (yard box) she can shoot, left or right. As you’ve seen, she’s very good at it.

“You get those two together (Duford and Howell), either one of them can score any given shot. Their point-to-point passing is amazing ... They can put together overlapping runs and they just do it naturally because they’ve been playing so long together. It’s a perfect storm.”

Polson and Whitefish met three times last year in a conference matchup that is growing in importance.

In the first match last season, the same Whitefish Homecoming game under the lights the two are entering this weekend, Duford scored a hat trick in a 4-1 rout of the Bulldogs. Nicholson added a late tally, but it showed a young Whitefish squad not to take the Pirates lightly.

“We weren’t set up to handle that kind of speed. She got three shots on goal, put three shots away. Boom,” Benedict said.

“Speed kills in soccer. She has that and technical ability. It’s exciting for Polson. That’s a deadly weapon down there.”

That message paid off later in the season when Whitefish shut out Polson on the road, Nicholson scoring both goals in a 2-0 win for the Bulldogs. Two weeks later, in the state play-in game, Nicholson added two more goals in the last 10 minutes of the game to pull Whitefish back from a 1-0 deficit and into the state tournament, where they went to the semifinals before falling to eventual state champion Billings Central.

“She’s explosive,” Hewston said. “She broke our heart in the play-in game. She’s always a threat. Our point is to maintain possession of the ball. The less Whitefish has the ball, the better off we’ll be.

“Any time she’s on (a defender’s) side of the field we’re going to man mark her. She’s that important. Any time Haley Nicholson comes on our side of the field, somebody is going to be standing an inch and a half from her ... Just slow her down as much as you can.”

This weekend’s game is shaping up to be equally important, with both teams undefeated at the top of the conference.

“We’re going to do what we can do and play the soccer we can play,” Hewston said. “Our goal this year is first place, that’s what we’re aiming for at this point.”

“It’s a big game for us, it’s huge,” Benedict said.

“It’s fun for the girls and fun for the community to play under the lights. There’s going to be lots of emotions riding high.”

Only two other girls have a shot at edging into the state scoring lead. Corvallis senior Corinne Sanderson currently leads the state with 20 goals and 46 points, albeit in nine games: one more than Whitefish and two more than Polson. On the other side of the Divide, Billings Central freshman Morgan Ferestad is the newest face in the Rams’ seemingly endless run of success, scoring 17 goals with three assists in seven games.

Certainly, this weekend in Whitefish, all eyes will be on two girls to make sure they don’t find any new ways to climb further up the list.

Stopping them is the harder part.